MUSICAL PLAYWRIGHT MICHAEL STEWART DIES

September 22, 1987

NEW YORK -- Michael Stewart, 63, who won Tony awards for writing the Broadway musicals "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Hello, Dolly!," died Sept. 20 at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. A hospital spokesman said he died of pneumonia.

Mr. Stewart, wrote numerous books and lyrics for Broadway musicals starting in the 1950s. In 1951, sketches he wrote were performed in the revue "Razzle Dazzle." He also wrote for revues featuring such young talents as Beatrice Arthur, Chita Rivera and Arte Johnson. In 1961, he and director Gower Champion collaborated on the show "Carnival," which won the New York Drama Critics Circle award.

Mr. Stewart also wrote the book or lyrics for shows such as "George M." about George M. Cohan, "The Grand Tour" and "Bring Back Birdie," a sequel that did not match his earlier success.

In recent years, he wrote "I Love My Wife," (1977); the lyrics for "Barnum" (1980); and helped write the still-running show, "42nd Street" (1980). Much of the work was done in collaboration with Mark Bramble, his partner since 1974.

He told friends he decided to write for the musical theater when, as a 10-year-old, he went with his family to see Ethel Merman in the Cole Porter musical, "Anything Goes."

In a 1979 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Stewart said, "I don't know why any bright person would want to be a musical-book writer. You're scorned by critics, you get no recognition from the public and the money isn't that good either."

He often complained that musical-book writers never got the credit accorded to composers and lyricists. He said "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Hello Dolly" received poor reviews for their books.

Mr. Stewart was a native and resident of New York City. He was educated at Queens College and received a master's degree in fine arts from Yale University. In the 1950s, he also wrote for Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" with other budding writers such as Neil Simon, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.

Survivors include his mother, a sister and a brother.

ROBERT J. SMITH,

63, the president and chairman of the Maryland Federal Savings and Loan Association and a member of numerous professional and service organizations, died of cancer Sept. 20 at Doctors' Hospital of Prince George's County in Lanham.

Mr. Smith, who lived in Mitchellville, was born in Washington and graduated from Gonzaga College High School. He served in the Navy in World War II.

In 1951, he began his career at Maryland Federal Savings and Loan. He was named president in 1979 and chairman in 1985.

He also was a past president of the Maryland Savings and Loan League, the Prince George's Chamber of Commerce, the Prince George's Kiwanis Club and the Maryland League For Savings Associations.

He had been a member of the executive committee of the Prince George's County Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews Inc., and a treasurer of the Prince George's General Hospital and Medical Center Foundation.

Mr. Smith was a 1975 recipient of the brotherhood award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and a 1979 recipient of the United Cerebral Palsy Humanitarian Award.

In 1972 he was inducted into the Greater Washington Softball Hall of Fame. He had been a member of the board of directors of the Prince George's Country Club.

Survivors include his wife, the former Helen Louise Myers, of Mitchellville; five children, Stephen, of Gaithersburg, Katherine and Brian, both of Laurel, Valerie Serio of Columbia, and Helen Louise, of Mitchellville; one brother, John Walker Smith of Phoenix, and two grandchildren.

JANET HART SYLVESTER,

70, an attorney with the Federal Reserve Board who retired in 1982 as director of its division of consumer and community affairs, died of cancer Sept. 20 at her home in Washington.

Mrs. Sylvester was born in Cincinnati and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pa. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1937 and received a law degree from Duke University in 1954.

She moved here in the mid-1950s and became an associate in the Washington office of the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. In 1958, she went to work at the Federal Reserve Board.

Except for the years 1960-62, when she lived in Mexico where her husband was on an assignment for the State Department, she remained at the Fed until she retired in 1982. She was the first woman to serve as director of one of the agency's divisions.

In 1973, Mrs. Sylvester received the Federal Woman's Award from President Nixon.

Mrs. Sylvester was a member of the board of managers of Swarthmore College and the committee of overseers of the Florida Avenue Meeting of the Society of Friends.

She was the author of a novel, "Mandrake Root," which was published in 1946 by Henry Holt.

Her marriage to William Diebold ended in divorce.

Survivors include her husband, Harry Sylvester of Washington; three children by her first marriage, Barbara D. Wick of Northfield, Ill., John B. Diebold of Nyack, N.Y., and Beatrice O. Hart of London; four stepchildren, John C. Sylvester of Key Biscayne, Fla., Anne R. Sylvester of Nantucket, Mass., Joan S. Wise of Washington, and Clare S. Strickler of Augusta, W.Va.; one sister, Barbara Hart Fogle of Marietta, Ohio., and 12 grandchildren.

SIDNEY CHARLES MOREY,

72, retired assistant fire chief of the District, died Sept. 20 at his home in Silver Spring of cerebellum ataxia, a degenerative disorder.

Mr. Morey was born in Orange, Mass. He moved to Washington in 1937 and joined the D.C. fire department. He worked there 34 years before he retired as assistant chief in 1971.

He was a 1964 graduate of Montgomery College and a 1969 graduate of the University of Maryland.

Mr. Morey was a member of the Retired Firefighters Association and the Woodside United Methodist Church in Silver Spring.,

Survivors include his wife, Juanita N. Butler Morey of Silver Spring; one daughter, Carolynne DuPont of Silver Spring; one sister, Louise A. Fraser of Surfside, S.C., and four grandchildren.

DOROTHY M. HESSMAN,

72, a retired executive secretary with the State Department who had been an elder and deacon of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, died of a heart ailment Sept. 17 at George Washington University Hospital.

Miss Hessman, who lived in Washington, was a native of Rock Island, Ill. In 1943, she moved here and went to work for the State Department. In addition to serving in Washington, she worked at the U.S. embassy in Moscow embassy in the mid-1940s and again in the mid-1950s. She also had been stationed in Warsaw and was executive secretary to our ambassador to Yugoslavia, George Kennan, in the early 1960s. She retired for reasons of health in 1969.

Survivors include one sister, Mildred Colberg of Redwood Falls, Minn.

ZELMA MORGAN NESBIT,

64, an area resident since 1970 who was a buyer with Hecht's from 1970 to 1973, died of cancer Sept. 17 at Arlington Hospital. She lived in Alexandria.

Mrs. Nesbit was a graduate of Marshall University in her native West Virginia and served in the WAVES during World War II. She taught school in West Virginia and in Bermuda, where she lived from 1955 to 1965. For the next five years, she lived in Newport News, where she operated book and ice cream stores.

Survivors include her husband of 40 years, Harry L. Nesbit of Alexandria; one daughter, Linda Denning of Raleigh, N.C.; four sons, Frank, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., Kenneth, of Manassas, and Larry and Daniel, both of Alexandria; four sisters, Aurelia Campbell of Parkersburg, W.Va., Viva Boehm of Baden, Pa., Maude Doran of Tallahassee, Fla., and Thelma Dye of Annandale, and five grandchildren.

FREDERICK V. HANNUM,

67, the retired founder of a shipping business and a commodities brokerage, died of cancer Sept. 19 at his home in Washington.

Mr. Hannum was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He attended Pace Institute in Texas. He served in the Army in Europe during World War II, and shortly after the war ended he married Alice Josephine Altemer of Marseilles.

Soon afterwards he moved to the Washington area and founded his businesses, Universal Shipping Corporation, United Overseas Corporation and the F.V. Hannum Corporation. Mr. Hannum managed the companies until he retired in 1983.

He was a deep-sea fishing enthusiast and a charter member of the board of trustees of the American Eagle Foundation, an environmental organization he helped found.

Survivors include his wife, of Washington; one daughter, Margaret Elaine Brown of Fairfax; one son, Paul Frederick Hannum of Rockville, and five grandchildren.

LINDESAY M. PARROTT,

86, a former New York Times reporter who was a combat correspondent in the Pacific during World War II and then headed the Times' bureaus in Tokyo and at the United Nations, died of a heart ailment Sept. 20 at his home in Arlington.

Mr. Parrott, who had lived in Northern Virginia for the past 10 years, was born in Edinburgh and raised in Princeton, N.J. He graduated from Princeton University and worked at newspapers in Buffalo, Newark and New York City. He then worked for the old International News Service in Moscow, Rome and Paris before joining the Times in the late 1930s.

During World War II he was wounded in the Philippines and received a Purple Heart.

Mr. Parrott retired in 1961 and lived in Vermont before moving to this area.

His marriage to Ursula Parrott ended in divorce. His second wife, Marian, died in the mid-1970s.

Survivors include one son, Lindesay M. Parrott Jr. of Hawaii; two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.